EastLansingInfo met their fundraising goal so the news group will continue to operate. This is great news for East Lansing, and I think it's great news for Lansing too as it shows demand exists for a heavily investigative and independent news source is there.
It's good to see the Howard Johnson being replaced, I'd agree that it's a pretty good spot for a new hotel. The new EL council and planning board meeting packets haven't been posted yet, but I'll be curious to see how the buildings are situated in the site plan. The commercial building will almost surely get frontage on Trowbridge so I hope that the hotel has room to sit next to it rather than being pushed back on the site, I'd like to see this corridor denser/more urbanized.
I'd just hate to see the hotel end up tucked away behind the commercial building. I don't ever expect this area to become truly downtown-like or walkable in any meaningful sense, but it is an important entrance to MSU for out of towners and in my mind having multi floor buildings line the street helps make the corridor more attractive and impressive, even when the building in question is just a four-floor cookie cutter hotel.
I'd wouldn't like to see EL allow much if any single floor new construction on Trowbridge in general, I'd also like to see them call for setbacks similar to that of Trowbridge Lofts. With the university expecting to build more towards Harrison I'd think demand for all sorts of space in the Harrison/Trowbridge area will only rise for the foreseeable future.
This is worse than what I was worrying about, not even the commercial building faces Trowbridge. I wouldn't be so sure about EL allowing this to go through, it depends on how the neighborhood feels about it as they were able to successfully fight for changes with Trowbridge Lofts. That being said I don't know how the neighborhood will react to this, I certainly wouldn't expect them to fight for a more urban layout.
The neighborhood has a few concerns that they usually bring up. They don't want large lights shining in their backyard and they don't want huge structures lined right up to their fence.
Putting the hotel closer to the street will put the parking in the back and thus the large parking lights shining in their backyards. Although this design does put the structure right at the fence line.
I think the best compromise here is to put the hotel and retail along the street, built in an L-shape with the retail on the street side and the hotel running perpendicular to the street. The parking lot can use LED lighting which has less light pollution, and then on the fence side they can plant multiple trees and hedges to provide a more natural fence-line that blocks the light and doesn't look so overbearing like a 10-foot wall would.
I am sure that it is money and the lack of any reason to do something better, they just plug in a building that is the same highway exit design they build everywhere. I guess we have to be satisfied with "it's better than what was there" statement that one often hears around here. The developers think we don't really care so they build the cheapest building they can get away with. There could be a balanced minimum standard set for building design and placement which would require them to do better.
To sum up the article, there are two 12-story buildings. One facing Grand River and another facing Albert Ave on Parking Lot 1 (Albert Ave Parking Lot). The lot on Albert Ave would have a six-story parking deck with six floors of senior housing above it. The ground floors would have retail. This would also potentially include a Target and Target grocery. Together this project would be really transformative and positive for East Lansing.
This looks pretty great, I think a dense urban development in this block of downtown E.L. is the way to go. I do have some concern about traffic, but the overall plan looks good and the idea of a major grocery store is something a lot of people have been hoping for. This could help make downtown East Lansing and the Michigan Ave. corridor a place one could live without owning a car.
First, this line was changed from "... permit a maximum building height of up to ten stories or 140 feet for a building of significant public benefit, provided the following standards apply:" to "... permit a maximum building height of up to ten stories or 140 feet, provided the following standards apply:". So this building could be up to 10 stories tall, and not have to live up to a bar of "providing public benefit" (specified as having cultural, open spaces).
Second, the buildings used to be required to have setbacks after the second floor. Now only 25% of the frontage will need setback after second floor.
Third, Sec 50-794 1c now says that the 50% requirement for owner-occupied housing will only be applied if ground coverage is more than 50,000 sq ft.
Overall, it looks like we may be seeing a proposal for a near 10-story building, complete with limited setback and no owner-occupied or senior housing requirement. The area runs along Bogue St and Grand River, stopping at River St. and Waters Edge Dr.
By comparison, the cement part of Ranney Skate Park is 20,000 sq ft (https://www.teampain.com/2008/09/ranney-skatepark/). According to the first link, the project will be on 46,650 sq ft of ground coverage.
Comments
EastLansingInfo met their fundraising goal so the news group will continue to operate. This is great news for East Lansing, and I think it's great news for Lansing too as it shows demand exists for a heavily investigative and independent news source is there.
It's good to see the Howard Johnson being replaced, I'd agree that it's a pretty good spot for a new hotel. The new EL council and planning board meeting packets haven't been posted yet, but I'll be curious to see how the buildings are situated in the site plan. The commercial building will almost surely get frontage on Trowbridge so I hope that the hotel has room to sit next to it rather than being pushed back on the site, I'd like to see this corridor denser/more urbanized.
I'd just hate to see the hotel end up tucked away behind the commercial building. I don't ever expect this area to become truly downtown-like or walkable in any meaningful sense, but it is an important entrance to MSU for out of towners and in my mind having multi floor buildings line the street helps make the corridor more attractive and impressive, even when the building in question is just a four-floor cookie cutter hotel.
I'd wouldn't like to see EL allow much if any single floor new construction on Trowbridge in general, I'd also like to see them call for setbacks similar to that of Trowbridge Lofts. With the university expecting to build more towards Harrison I'd think demand for all sorts of space in the Harrison/Trowbridge area will only rise for the foreseeable future.
This is worse than what I was worrying about, not even the commercial building faces Trowbridge. I wouldn't be so sure about EL allowing this to go through, it depends on how the neighborhood feels about it as they were able to successfully fight for changes with Trowbridge Lofts. That being said I don't know how the neighborhood will react to this, I certainly wouldn't expect them to fight for a more urban layout.
The neighborhood has a few concerns that they usually bring up. They don't want large lights shining in their backyard and they don't want huge structures lined right up to their fence.
Putting the hotel closer to the street will put the parking in the back and thus the large parking lights shining in their backyards. Although this design does put the structure right at the fence line.
I think the best compromise here is to put the hotel and retail along the street, built in an L-shape with the retail on the street side and the hotel running perpendicular to the street. The parking lot can use LED lighting which has less light pollution, and then on the fence side they can plant multiple trees and hedges to provide a more natural fence-line that blocks the light and doesn't look so overbearing like a 10-foot wall would.
I am sure that it is money and the lack of any reason to do something better, they just plug in a building that is the same highway exit design they build everywhere. I guess we have to be satisfied with "it's better than what was there" statement that one often hears around here. The developers think we don't really care so they build the cheapest building they can get away with. There could be a balanced minimum standard set for building design and placement which would require them to do better.
EastLansingInfo has big news... "Major New Development Proposed, Likely to Change Downtown Business Landscape"
http://www.eastlansinginfo.org/content/major-new-development-proposed-likely-change-downtown-business-landscape
To sum up the article, there are two 12-story buildings. One facing Grand River and another facing Albert Ave on Parking Lot 1 (Albert Ave Parking Lot). The lot on Albert Ave would have a six-story parking deck with six floors of senior housing above it. The ground floors would have retail. This would also potentially include a Target and Target grocery. Together this project would be really transformative and positive for East Lansing.
This looks pretty great, I think a dense urban development in this block of downtown E.L. is the way to go. I do have some concern about traffic, but the overall plan looks good and the idea of a major grocery store is something a lot of people have been hoping for. This could help make downtown East Lansing and the Michigan Ave. corridor a place one could live without owning a car.
Looks like a "large housing project" will be announced for the corner of Grand River Ave and Bogue St, built by Core Campus:
Memo: http://eastlansing.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=1164&meta_id=46608
Draft ordinance for changes to form-based zoning: http://eastlansing.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=1164&meta_id=46610
This will be introduced at City Council's meeting on Tuesday night.
Reading between the lines on the zoning changes:
First, this line was changed from "... permit a maximum building height of up to ten stories or 140 feet for a building of significant public benefit, provided the following standards apply:" to "... permit a maximum building height of up to ten stories or 140 feet, provided the following standards apply:". So this building could be up to 10 stories tall, and not have to live up to a bar of "providing public benefit" (specified as having cultural, open spaces).
Second, the buildings used to be required to have setbacks after the second floor. Now only 25% of the frontage will need setback after second floor.
Third, Sec 50-794 1c now says that the 50% requirement for owner-occupied housing will only be applied if ground coverage is more than 50,000 sq ft.
Overall, it looks like we may be seeing a proposal for a near 10-story building, complete with limited setback and no owner-occupied or senior housing requirement. The area runs along Bogue St and Grand River, stopping at River St. and Waters Edge Dr.
By comparison, the cement part of Ranney Skate Park is 20,000 sq ft (https://www.teampain.com/2008/09/ranney-skatepark/). According to the first link, the project will be on 46,650 sq ft of ground coverage.